One month later

One month since my last post has brought over 15 inches of rain, brining out rainfall total since June 7th over 20 inches. Last night we were hit with another 4.5". Today has been spent pumping fairways and bunkers. Other than the rain I have been assigned course setup most morning. This involves changin pin placement moving tee markers car traffic signs, and picking up trash. Other than the rain we have lucked out with the weather. It has been in my opinion a rather mild "temperature" wise summer. Due to our high clay content in our soil we have only had to syringe a few days this summer.

And then the rain came

In the past two weeks we got hammered with 7.65'' of rain, which brought lots of flooding to the course.  When our course receives this much precipitation we are limited in what we can do. One thing we can do is pump, pump, pump! Despite all the rain, our bunkers took the water beautifully, yes we still had wash outs and a few bunkers that looked more like swimming pools, however the damage done was no comparison to previous years.

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Bunker Project

Since the fate of Woodcrest was undecided until the late May acquisition of the course by First Montgomery Group, maintenance of the course was at 50%.  Luckily once a date for re-opening was set, the throttle was turned up.  The first big project of the year was to add sand to all of our bunkers.  With a deadline of only a week until opening day we needed all the help we could get.  Thankfully to our friends at Pine Valley, extra crew members and a vital piece of equipment, we were able to meet our deadline before we opened on June 6th.  In order to get our bunkers into playing shape we had to edge, remove old dirt, and most importantly we added a temporary drainage fix to a majority of the bunkers.  We used a Toro Dingo with a drill bit to remove clay, which most of Woodcrest is built on, and then we backfilled them with fresh sand to help the bunkers drain.  

New Job!

It has been quite a long time since my last post, the reason for that is I moved back East to take a position at the New Woodcrest Country Club in Cherry Hill, NJ.  Woodcrest was recently purchased by The First Montgomery Group of Marlton.  It was a tough decision to leave Shooting Star, however for my new career I felt it was important to enhance my skills at the course that originally peaked my interest in the business.  At Woodcrest my position is "Assistant-in-Training,"  this position offers me the best of both worlds.  I get to get a taste of management as well as performing all mechanical and cultural practices at the course.  Overall, I am excited and eager to get the season underway.

April 15

Today I took my commerial pesticide applicators license for the state of Wyoming. And I passed!!

Check out my Flickr page for more photos!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/94926530@N07/ 

Pink Snow Mold and Fairy Ring

While I was on a walk about  I ran into our good friend Microdochium nivale!

Luckily with the warm weather coming soon we anticipate our turf making a full recovery.

I also ran into a little type 2 fairy ring.

Also seen in these two pictures are brown spots as a result of Elk traffic